While activities such as reading, writing, fiddling with the servers, and general upkeep of the house and yard have fallen off my list of things I regularly do (thankfully bathing and brushing my teeth are still on it) movie watching has spiked largely due to the fact that putting Gabi to bed involves an hour of two of cuddling before she actual will stay asleep. This week I’ve watched more movies than I have in the past year and even managed to stay awake through all of them. Some were fantastic, others visually tantalizing, and some execrable. Here’s the short list:

• Into the Blue
  This picture sums up the first hour of the film which can be mathematically represented as [(Jessica Alba + (Sun*Surf))^Bikini] = [Motivation to sit through an insipid plot]. I honestly think that this was the intention of the producers as that first hour was filled with one beautiful shot after another of Ms. Alba frolicking around the coastal waters of the Bahamas in the tiniest of outfits whilst demonstrating supernatural lung capacity. At the end of the hour, like some peepshow, the shade is drawn and she dons a wet suit and the viewer is faced with the cold hard reality of a limp plot, something about cocaine and lost pirate treasure. I don’t know but I do know that they could have just edited the last hour out and I would have been more than happy with the film.
• Domino
  Management recorded this one for me, likely not because of Kiera Knightly offering lap dances in her unmentionables to a collection of portly stereotypical Socal thugs, but because it was supposed to be an action packed flick involving guns and explosions. Here’s a tip: if the movie features Mickey Rourke you should turn around and walk quickly in the opposite direction. The movie could be nothing more than Ms. Knightly grinding in her panties but the moment they allow Rourke to emote the entire film collapses. He just has that power, it’s his gift.
• Howl’s Moving Castle
  Now this one was more family friendly–especially if you are questioning my viewing choices as a parent at this point. It has a great storyline that blends together several fairy tales (Snow White, Cinderella, The Frog and the Prince), giving them a fresh coat of paint and updating them to make the female lead more independent and self-sufficient. The Steam Punk world that characters inhabit is fantastic and I often found myself ignoring the dialog to just marvel at the visuals and the leaps of imagination that were committed to celluloid. See it.
• Papillon
  Steve McQueen. Dustin Hoffman. Solid acting. Solid plot. All those add up to make a film that is on the top of my list of favorites. I hadn’t seen Papillon since high school and was happy to see it show up on AMC last week as its long running time and high strung drama makes for perfect late night viewing (the added bonus is the condition of their teeth serves to make me feel better about mine–Capt. Cavity here). The movie is an adaptation of what has been argued to be a largely fictionalized autobiography of Henri Charrière but disregarding all that this is one of the best damn prison break films ever made. See it. Now.

Still left on the DVR is some 80 hours of movies including Brick which I am very eager to see as well as The Night of the Hunter–Robert Mitchum gives me the willies.

Any other recommendations? (and if it involves Jessica Alba in a bikini I’ll see it quicker!)